


Clear Mirror, Still Water

by NanakiBH



Category: Final Fantasy Type-0
Genre: Alternate Ending, Apocalypse, Hugs, Light Angst, Love Confessions, M/M, Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-24
Updated: 2020-06-24
Packaged: 2021-03-03 21:20:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,737
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24902245
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NanakiBH/pseuds/NanakiBH
Summary: He'd always been Jack's secret admirer. On the world's last day, he could finally tell him.
Relationships: Jack/Lean Joker (Final Fantasy Type-0)
Kudos: 2





	Clear Mirror, Still Water

**Author's Note:**

> Well, now I'm 99.9% sure that the past of Kingdom Hearts is based on Agito XIII, which was originally supposed to be the ancient past of Versus XIII. If you aren't that familiar with Kingdom Hearts, don't worry about it. You don't need to know anything about that in order to read this. lol
> 
> I just felt inspired after I found out that the Agito mobile game was supposed to give Type-0 a _new ending_. Unfortunately, though, it had to close before they could get there. I think Nomura figured out how to integrate that ending into KH3 with the "light of the past", but I still want the real, original Class Zero to be saved. So here's something hopeful~

Again...

Even though it was supposed to be over. At least, they thought it would have been over. The world may have been released from the Spiral, but they had forgotten something.

Without the Crystals' light, the world fell to darkness just as the Nameless Tome had foretold. For a time, the people listened to Machina, the one who was praised as a hero for ending the war. It seemed as though things were turning around. Little by little, light was returning. But as the light grew, so did the shadows. It wasn't long before the people turned against each other, coveting the light.

And then, once again...

There was nothing.

There were no Rursan soldiers. Pandaemonium remained beneath the waves. The sky did not turn red, nor did the sea turn black. The prophesy simply came to pass and left the world an empty wasteland, a shell of its former self. At the end of it all, the sky opened and a brilliant light poured down and swallowed everything before vanishing back into the sky.

Lean Joker was the only one left to witness the end.

Was that the light of fleeting souls as they passed through the Gate? It was beautiful, and terrifying. That was the moment Mother had waited for upon the conclusion of each Spiral.

He almost wished he could have passed through with them. He didn't want to be alone. But he was alive, and he wasn't Agito. His feet remained on the ground.

Even Tiz...

She tried to stop the fighting, but she got caught up in it instead.

Everyone died.

His suffering multiplied.

For the first time, alone, Lean had to act for himself. There was no longer a Milites, no Rubrum, no Mother. Surely, he thought, the ones above were watching him, waiting to see what choice he would make. What could be done by the last person in the world?

He cared about the world, certainly...

But, more than anything, he simply didn't want to be alone anymore. Silently observing the world had been hard; their suffering was too much to bear. Without Tiz by his side, he was ready to collapse beneath the weight of it.

He did not submit to despair. The world had been filled with brilliant minds. One of them, Kazusa Futahito, had discovered the means to return a person from the dead. All one needed was to remember. It sounded so simple, but it had been an impossible feat for the ones whose memories of the dead were erased by the Crystal. He remembered everything – far more than he even wanted to remember.

It was destiny. It had to be.

What had seemed like a burden had become a blessing.

Lean returned to the place where Class Zero had fallen. The humble monument to their sacrifice and heroism still stood in the ruins of Akademeia, untouched since the day of their departure. He gazed upon the weapons before him and silently made a choice, reaching for the weapon that was like his own. He dared not to unsheathe it, but he believed that its blade would still shine as brilliantly as it had on the last day of its use.

Its wielder was the strongest member of Class Zero. With his pure heart, Lean believed that he had been the closest to becoming the true Agito. If there was anyone who stood a chance of saving the world from its dark fate, then it had to be that boy and his boundless optimism.

“This really does seem too easy,” Lean muttered, looking at the weapon. “Now all I have to do is... remember?”

Jack was a hard one to forget.

Lean documented everything he saw. He was always quietly watching them. Once upon a time, Class Zero had known him, but that was a long, long time ago, all the way back at the beginning of the Spiral. For countless rotations, he'd watched them. While he grew more fond of them, they lived and died countless times, unaware of his existence. He wished that he could go back to the day they met, when they were all there, together.

It was his duty to support them, but he'd also wanted to be one of them.

Mother deemed him unnecessary, though. In the end, he couldn't become Agito, and he'd even failed to help them.

Jack would have told him to cheer up. It was no use, thinking that way.

Even in a world of darkness, as long as there was at least one person left for him to smile for, Jack would have smiled brightly. He would have been able to somehow find happiness and hope where there was none. That was all the world needed. It didn't need the light of the Crystals. There was light in people's hearts, wasn't there?

Lean knew that Jack's smile wasn't real. He'd seen everything, after all, so he knew that Jack was someone very different when no one else was looking. But he never let it slip. He surely felt the same despair as everyone else in the face of their endless war, but his heart remained strong and unwavering. So, in a way, his smile was even stronger than a real one. If Jack ever got the chance to smile for real, sincerely, then it would have probably been enough to light up the whole world and beyond.

“Jack...”

“Uh...”

Lean gasped and lifted his head. His eyes were met by a pair of familiar aquamarine eyes.

The katana fell from his hands and he threw his arms around the figure in front of him. He knew that Kazusa's experiments had always ended in failure, the subjects fading away before they could even speak, so he was afraid of letting him escape. For a moment, all Lean could hear was the terrified pounding of his heart, but, when a few more moments passed, he realized that the person he was holding hadn't faded away yet.

“You're... You're really here. It worked.”

He had more than a knowing tag and more than a few scattered memories. With Jack's sword and his clear memories of him, the real Jack had returned.

Although he tried to keep his emotions in check, it was impossible. His grasp loosened, but he continued to cling to him, hiding his face against the other boy's shoulder as silent sobs made his shoulders tremble.

He felt Jack lay his hands softly on his back.

“Hey... Lean...?”

Startled, Lean's eyes snapped open wide. He backed away slightly to look at him in confusion.

“You know my name?”

Jack narrowed his eyes and raised an eyebrow. “Yeeeah? Like, we just saw each other a minute ago, didn't we? I was just 'helping' Kazusa with another one of his crazy experiments, and now I'm here. Where are we?”

“Why do you know... my name...?”

“Cuz we know each other. Duh.”

“No, we-...”

But they did. They did know each other.

As he'd held Jack's sword and focused on his memories, the memories he called to mind were of the Jack he used to know – the one he first met.

The Jack standing in front of him was a Jack from the past.

“Wait, don't tell me Kazusa's machine actually worked!”

Lean blinked. “What machine?”

With a sigh, Jack stepped away and scratched the back of his head. “Man, you expect _me_ to explain it? I'm not a scientist.” But he was going to try, regardless. “Okay, it had something to do with space and time or something like that. Uh... Traveling across the universe? I dunno. It sounded like he was trying to build a spaceship, but it looked more like a time machine to me.”

Lean didn't quite understand, but it didn't matter. Jack was there all the same.

“Jack. This is the end of the world.”

Jack was quiet for a moment. Then, “ _What?_ ”

That was the short version. Explaining was going to be difficult. “I'm sorry. See, there's actually a lot you don't know...”

“Heh. Yeah, you've got that right,” he said, crossing his arms over his chest with an understanding nod. “Tell me something I didn't know~”

Always so easygoing. Lean couldn't help but smile despite the circumstances.

“As you probably guessed, this is the future. And this is... I guess I'm partially to blame for how things turned out this way.” He turned his gaze to the sky, visible through the building's damage. Even though Jack didn't show it, it must have come as a shock to see their classroom in such a state. Lean felt tears sting his eyes as he struggled to explain what happened.

“This is what was written in the Nameless Tome, isn't it?” Jack said.

Lean shook his head. “No, not quite. That ending already came. Machina and Rem-...” He recalled that the Jack of the past hadn't been in the same class as them. “Two cadets, they rebuilt the world after it fell to darkness as the prophecy foretold. But then fighting broke out again, and it didn't stop until everyone was gone. Even Tiz... Even Tohno is gone now.”

“Wait, so... What, it's just you now?”

He couldn't say it. All he could do was nod.

Lowering his head, he tried to pull his hood down to cover his face, to hide the tears he couldn't control. There was so much. He didn't know how to tell him.

“The world... I've seen it end before, but not like this. Mother ordered me to watch, so I did. I watched... for so long.” A few of his tears fell and dampened the ground at his feet. “I saw you and the others die over and over in the hopes of becoming Agito. After so many worlds, Tiz and I, we thought humanity may have finally surpassed the need for Agito, so we asked Mother to release you. But, then...”

“Hm...”

Lean looked up, surprised to find Jack looking ponderous more than anything else. A part of him had wished that Jack would have blamed him for what happened, though he knew better. Jack wasn't that type of person. He wasn't much of the thinking type, either, but when push came to shove, he had that other side of him. No – it wasn't really another side. It was because his mind was so free, he was able to take unexpected actions and produce unexpected results.

What a world of ruin needed was a bit of the unknown. Creation was born from chaos.

After pacing for a moment, Jack stopped and looked up. He turned to Lean and grabbed his hand.

Lean couldn't remember the last time anyone touched him like that. It was like there was no longer a boundary between him and the rest of the world, even if the world was just one other person.

“C'mon, Lean,” Jack said, leading him out of the classroom. “Kazusa's machine must be around here somewhere. Let's go find it.”

Walking a step behind him, Lean just stared at their joined hands, feeling something warm in the pit of his stomach. A part of him felt like he didn't deserve to smile in their situation, but he couldn't help it. He decided to take a page from Jack's book and let himself smile. Hope wouldn't come from a frown.

“You're always so... chill.”

“That's why you called me, isn't it?”

Lean squeezed his hand and glanced away, suddenly feeling too embarrassed to meet Jack's eyes when he looked back at him. “Y-yeah... Actually, I haven't had a lot of contact with anyone, even Mother. A lot of time would pass between our encounters. Even though I was always watching you and the others, I was never allowed to interact with you directly in fear of altering the course of the future, so... This is the first time I've been able to call out to you in a very long time.”

Jack slowed down a little as they walked through the ruined hallways. Eventually, they were walking side by side, their hands still loosely linked.

“Thanks. For real, I'm honored that you'd pick me when you could've tried to call for someone who was smarter or more ambitious. I dunno how I'm gonna get us out of this mess, but I know there's no use in freaking out. I mean, if worst comes to worst, the past still exists, right?”

“R-right...”

As they continued, heading through the entrance toward the library, Lean stroked his chin in thought, wondering if Jack might have unintentionally been on to something. Jack came from the past, so his perspective was different. If the future was unknown, then the future of the past he came from was still unwritten.

It made Lean's head hurt, but he felt like he was close to figuring something out.

The library had become a dangerous area. With the balcony surrounding the upper floor demolished, there was nothing that stood between them and the crater that went thirty feet down. When he looked over the edge, into the dark abyss that had once been the bottom level, Jack shuddered and hastily backed away, tugging Lean toward the wall. They crept along the outer wall and carefully stepped over overturned bookcases until they reached the one bookcase that hid Kazusa's laboratory. Lean let go of Jack's hand so he could help him push it aside.

It was dark, and they couldn't use fire magic to see, so they rummaged through the shelves until they found a set of matches. Lean lit the candle on Kazusa's desk and a faint, yellow light illuminated the small room.

To Lean's surprise, there was a large device he'd never seen before. From a cluster of seven pods, each one large enough to fit a person, a set of copper tubes reached up toward the ceiling. The device was as dark as everything else in the school. It didn't seem to be in operating order.

“I don't remember this being here,” Lean said. “I've observed Kazusa. I'm sure I would've written about this...” Producing one of his records from his cloak, he began flipping through the pages, eager to find if there’d been something he'd overlooked.

“Well, do you think _I'm_ supposed to be here?” Jack asked, placing his hands on his hips.

“Huh?”

“What I mean is... Uh... Well...”

Lean took a seat at Kazusa's desk and waited patiently for Jack to figure out what he meant.

“Look,” Jack said, gesturing wildly with both hands, “all I know is that it isn't normal for the past to interact with the future. Right?”

As obvious as it may have sounded, he did have a point. “You're right. I'm not sure how many lifetimes I've lived through at this point, but it's been enough for me to know that the past has never interacted with the future like this – not to my knowledge, at least. Maybe Kazusa's machine is here now because it was part of the time you came from.”

“Right! That's what I meant!” Jack said cheerfully. “So it's like, the machine came with me or something~”

Lean's eyes narrowed in thought. “If we can get the machine working again... We can try to change the future from the past. Maybe there's a way we could at least preserve the Vermilion Bird Crystal...” He shook his head wearily, becoming disheartened as he immediately thought of counterarguments to his own suggestion. “But, even if we can save the Crystal, everyone will probably just start fighting over its light again... But... Without it, the world will remain in darkness. Is there nothing we can do?”

“Hey, calm down~ We don't even know if we _can_ get the machine working. Why don't we take things one step at a time and come up with other ideas? Our first idea probably wouldn't even be the best one, so there's no use getting stressed out if you think it won't work.”

“That was... very wise of you.”

Jack laughed. “Naaah. I'm just used to being wrong a lot~”

It was impossible to learn without taking the risk of being wrong. It was nothing to be afraid of – as long as they weren't putting themselves in danger to find out.

Looking at Jack's calm, smiling face, Lean took a deep breath and let it out slowly, trying to relax so he could think more rationally. Jack mimicked him, leaning back as he took a comically big breath. Lean laughed.

He put his hands on his knees and pushed himself up. They were probably going to need that candle some other time, so he blew it out for the time being. Didn't want to waste it.

“What about the Altocrystarium?” he asked.

“Oh! ...What about it?”

Lean had to resist the urge to slap himself on the forehead. It wasn't Jack's fault, though... He forgot that the members of Class Zero were largely unaware of the Altocrystarium's true purpose. At least Jack had a vague idea of what phantoma was, whereas the average person didn't even know it existed.

Preferring to speak in a place that was better lit, Lean motioned for Jack to follow him, and he led him out of the secret lab and back over the collapsed bookcases. Once they were safely back in the main area where the grand portal had once been, he started to explain.

“You were collecting souls.”

“We were _whaaaat?_ ”

He'd expected that type of reaction. He smirked. “Yeah, I know. Sounds crazy, huh? The phantoma you collected and brought to the Altocrystarium would later be used to restart the world after it ended. You can't have people without souls, after all. I feel like... Maybe we can do something with that? I don't know how Mother did it, though.”

Jack stared at him with his mouth agape. Lean could imagine the sound of static in his brain.

Processing... Processing...

“Wow...,” he muttered in amazement. “I knew that Mother was powerful, but I never knew that she had that kind of power...”

Not like he expected him to have any kind of meaningful contribution that time. It was understandable. He'd had countless ages to think about what it all meant and how it all worked... And it was still a mystery to him. He could only imagine how confusing it must have been for Jack. But he was really taking it in stride. Like he said, he was used to being wrong... He was probably used to being confused and feeling stupid. Lean hated feeling that way, so he felt a little more comfortable in the presence of someone who didn't let things like that get to them.

It kind of made him want to laugh. The world had ended, but there he was, feeling comfortable for the first time in forever. It made him realize just how unusual his life had been.

Was it better to be unaware of the mysteries of the universe?

Either way, it seemed like everyone suffered. Whether they remembered the dead... Whether they forgot... Whether or not they knew about the deities above, pulling their strings... In the end, everyone perished the same way. The only thing that was constant in their world was war and suffering.

Akademeia was just a shell of its former self. But, when he forced his gaze to lift from the debris around his feet, Lean saw Jack there with his head raised to the small light that pierced through the cracks in the ceiling.

Just for a little while, or for however long it took for them to find the answer, he wanted to stand beside that person at the end of the world.

He watched as Jack walked toward the statue of the sage beneath the entrance of Central Command. He looked at it for a while and then sat down on the raised edge around it without speaking his thoughts. Lean sat down beside him and let out a sigh. It came out sounding a little shakier than he would've liked, but, if Jack noticed, he didn't comment on it.

Lean watched him, but he didn't find anything out of the ordinary. Just a smile. There was something sad about his eyes, though.

“So, no one became Agito...,” Jack said quietly, his voice just as light and carefree-sounding as usual. “Do you think they really exist?”

“They must. I don't think we would have been pursuing them otherwise.” Though, as soon as the words left his mouth, he found himself reconsidering them, uncertain. “Well...”

“No, you're right,” Jack said. “They must exist... Maybe not now. Maybe not even in the future.”

“What do you mean?”

“Like Kazusa's machine. Maybe Agito exists somewhere in the past and they were just overlooked. Mother spent so much time focusing on us, didn't she? Maybe...” He faltered, as if his breath had gotten lodged in his throat. Although he wouldn't let it show on his face, it was clear to Lean that he was fighting back difficult feelings. “Maybe it was none of us.”

Jack couldn't have truly known how much time she'd spent, nor could he have felt disappointment for the millions of times he and the other members of Class Zero had failed. But the look in his eyes was so tragically sad, like a part of him did feel the weight of all of those failed attempts. It could have been the deepest part of him – his soul – the one part of him that stayed connected from the past to the future.

Why had Mother agreed to free them?

Was it really just a moment of benevolence?

Or...

Had she simply been ready to admit that she'd been trying to accomplish the impossible?

Maybe she just got tired.

The truth of her thoughts was beyond their comprehension. Trying to understand what she'd been thinking was probably just as futile as the search for Agito.

Suddenly, Lean found Jack leaning against his shoulder, looking at him with a glimmer in his eyes.

“What kind of person do you think Agito should be?” Jack asked. “I always imagined someone heroic and strong. Someone who's ridiculously powerful. There were some pretty strong guys here, but I don't know if I could picture any of them turning into the kind of superhero I'm imagining...”

Lean answered without a second thought.

“You.”

“Huh?”

“I always thought...” He glanced away, feeling his face getting hot. Sitting that close to Jack, however, he was sure that even his hood couldn't hide his blush. “Well, I thought you seemed the most likely.”

“No way~ I'm not that special~” Jack playfully batted at his arm with a giggle that made Lean's chest feel tight. It seemed like Jack thought he was joking, but he also seemed to nonetheless take it as a compliment.

Did Jack understand what he meant? It was okay if he didn't.

Jack's shoulders slumped, and he leaned against him more heavily. Heart rate skyrocketing, vision blurring, Lean felt like he was going to pass out. He could smell his hair... Was that the product he used? It smelled kind of nice on its own. Oh, and he was warm. His hand was resting so close to his thigh, too... Lean didn't know if he was brave enough to hold his hand or anything like that, but he could tell that Jack was in need of comfort. It would have made him feel like he was taking advantage of the situation, but he didn't like seeing him that way.

“I was going to try to be Agito,” Jack said, staring at the ground. “By the sound of it, I must've tried a lot.”

“You don't have to try,” Lean said, trying his hardest to make his voice sound reassuring. “Right now, as you are... I think that's enough. The fact that you're here, that you've given me hope... You make me feel like we can save the world.”

Jack lifted his head and looked at him with both brows raised in a look of surprise. That look quickly transformed into something more mischievous as a stupid grin slowly spread across his face.

“Ohhh~?” He elbowed Lean gently in the side. Then he elbowed him again, just as playfully but a little less gently, making Lean tip to the side. “Oh, reeeally~?”

Lean looked away, feeling unsure of how he was supposed to interpret Jack's antics. He didn't sound annoyed. It was more like he was trying to tease him – and if that was the case, it was working. Lean wanted to disappear into his hood. “I-I know that probably just sounded like empty words...,” he mumbled nervously. “Sorry. Just forget it.”

“Aw, come on~ I thought that was super sweet! I felt inspired.”

“Do you really want to know what I'm thinking?” Lean asked.

He was afraid to say, actually.

Was he allowed? Was it okay? When would it be appropriate for him to say the things he'd always been thinking? If not at the end of the world, then never?

Jack was waiting.

Deciding that he was ready, Lean stood, releasing himself from the chains that had bound him in his solitude. Although it was still hard to face him, he brought himself to speak, keeping his back straight and his head high.

“I know that this isn't really the end. Even if they won't answer us, I'm sure that the gods still exist out there, so, even if we died, they could just fix everything themselves. They were the ones who made us in the first place, so if they want humans to exist, they could make them exist. So... What I'm saying is...” He clenched his fists, feeling the sting of spite in his heart. “I guess, there's a part of me that doesn't care. I've lived for far longer than any person should. I'm tired. Don't I deserve to rest? Why is this my responsibility? I just...”

Hardly a moment later, his shoulders jumped in surprise when he felt Jack grab him from behind. His forehead was against his back, his arms around his chest, holding him tightly.

If he knew what he was really thinking, then he probably wouldn't have wanted to be holding him like that. In the depths of his heart, there were nothing but selfish feelings – all of the things he'd wanted for himself but had never been allowed to have.

Softly, his touch barely a whisper, Lean placed a hand over one of Jack's.

“I like you, Jack. Maybe I just wanted you here for myself... If things ended this way, I don't think I'd mind.” He laughed a little, bitterly. “That's awful, right?”

Against his back, he felt Jack shake his head.

“Everyone has their own world... If I could make your world bright in its final moments, then I'd feel like I accomplished my job as Agito.”

He knew that Jack would respond that way. That was the kind of person he was. And if he was truly selfish, Lean would have simply accepted his words.

Instead, he turned, loosely taking Jack's wrists in his hands.

“Is that what you want?”

Though covered in the gloss of unshed tears, Jack's eyes were hollow. Lean knew that Jack had never truly done anything for himself. There were indulgences he enjoyed, and to others it probably seemed like he was self-absorbed, but that couldn't have been farther from the truth. It didn't feel quite right to call him 'empty.' He was transparent like the clear, summer sea. His heart simply reflected the wishes of others.

But he had to have wishes of his own below the surface, even if they were buried like treasure in the shadows of the seabed.

Then, though it appeared a little unsure at first, Jack smiled.

“I told you already, didn't I? I'm happy that you picked me. I'm sure you've known a lot of people, but out of all of them... I was the one you wanted to see. You even said that you thought I could be Agito. Y-you're making me feel like I'm someone important or something~”

Maybe that was the reward for his long vigil – finally being able to see that boy with a real smile.

“You're important to me. Yeah.”

When Jack wrapped him in a hug, Lean knew that they were going to save the world somehow, even if they did it solely for themselves.


End file.
